Typical memory cells are created comprising one single Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect-Transistor (MOS-FET) as a switching device connected with a capacitor as a digital data storage device, thus commonly referred to as a 1T-RAM device. A capacitor known as a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure possesses a low-interfacial reaction specificity to enhance its performance. The MIM capacitor has therefore become an important topic of research for memory technology. Leung, et al., “The Ideal SoC Memory: 1T-SRAM” 0-7803-6598 4/00, IEEE pp. 32 to 36, is incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,597 to Tsu, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,234 to Ma, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,271,084 to Tu, et al. also incorporated herein by reference, describe MIM capacitor processes.
A gate electrode of the MOS transistor serves as part of that memory device wiring. As feature sizes of semiconductor devices continue to be scaled to smaller dimensions, it is desirable to reduce the resistance of gate electrode lines as much as possible, and the use of conventional gate electrode material is becoming increasingly problematic. In particular, the use of the gate electrode to align source/drain implants imposes significant limitations on the gate electrode material, such as polysilicon, which can withstand high temperatures of the source/drain annealing and prevent dopants from reacting with the channel region of the underlying silicon substrate. However, the polysilicon gate electrode has drawbacks of polysilicon depletion, voltage leakage, and high resistance. In an effort to overcome these problems, metals or refractory metal alloys are alternative materials currently being investigated for use as gate electrodes. These metallic materials offer potential advantages over polysilicon because of their pattern ability, low sheet resistance, and scalability to advanced MOS technologies. U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,716 for “Fabrication Method of a Metal Gate,” incorporated herein by reference, discloses a metal gate including a plurality of titanium nitride layers.